MESCAL: A STUDY OF A DIVINE PLANT. 61 



observations extend. There are, however, very wide individual varia- 

 tions in the effects of the drug, as have been made clear by subsequent 

 experiments which I have made on other persons. It may, therefore, 

 be of interest to present another experiment for the sake of comparison. 

 In this case the subject was not under my own immediate observation; 

 I should not myself, indeed, have given him mescal at all, knowing that 

 in such a case the experience would certainly not be altogether pleasant. 

 The subject was an art-student, 26 years of age and 6 feet in height, a 

 Highlander on the father's side, and a Lowlander on the mother's, pre- 

 senting the type of the red-haired, beak-nosed Highlander. Though 

 never ill, he is never in good condition, muscles flabby, skin clammy, 

 pulse liable to be weak and intermittent, without reserve of mental or 

 physical energy. He had severe rheumatism ten years previously. He 

 is lazy and drinks and smokes to excess. He gives the impression of a 

 man of splendid physical race, who has somehow not reached the per- 

 fection of his type. Altogether, so far as mescal is concerned, I should 

 regard him as an unlikely subject for what the Indian would call a 

 'beautiful intoxication.' But the experiment which I give in the words 

 of the very good observer who conducted it is not on that account the 

 less interesting. 



"The first dose was administered, after a fair meal, at 4:30 p.m. 

 No nausea was at any time experienced. Pulse 96. 



"5:00 p.m. The pulse was 86. 



"5 :30 p.m. The pulse was 62, flaccid and compressible, with a per- 

 ceptible second beat, and rather intermittent. The subject had been 



lying in the veranda of the bungalow since 4:30 p.m. The second dose 

 was now given. 



"5:45 p.m. The pulse was 60, and remained at 60, except during 

 exertion, for the next twenty hours. The pulsations were now occurring 

 in a strongly staccato fashion. There was no perceptible second beat, 

 and the pulse was not so compressible. 



"6:00 p.m. The pulse was no longer staccato, but distinctly inter- 

 mittent. It was, however, stronger, and but little affected by holding 

 the wrist above the head. 



"6:30 p.m. The third dose was given at 6:30, and the subject 

 came indoors, and was wrapped up in a chair facing the open door, and 

 looking out to sea. A deep sudden breath now caused a marked 

 acceleration in the heart's action, and rising from a lying to a sitting 

 posture sent up the pulse from 60 to 80, for a space of ten seconds or so. 



"6:45 p.m. A feeling, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, of general 

 lassitude and indifference, and a slight sensation of rigidity in the backs 

 of the fingers when extended. The same feeling was present in a less 

 degree all over the body, giving the subject the impression that the motor 

 nerves were becoming partially paralyzed. Otherwise the subject was 

 perfectly comfortable, though somewhat weak and lethargic. 



